Elva
by Phoenix-Magic
Summary: Elva has always been different, ever since Eragon 'blessed' her. Her mind is of a too experienced adults...completely different from a normal child's. She knows they are different...but is it possible-even just remotely-that Elva could be accepted by them? Set after the Inheritance Cycle, a short story of Elva and a small part of her life. Just something I have always thought of.


_**A.N.I hope you like this short story. It has always been something I imagined, and just wanted to write about it.**_

_**DISCLAIMER-I own none of the characters from the Inheritance Cycle, they all belong to the amazing Christopher Paolini. I wish I owned them though.**_

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Elva watched the other children silently. They seemed to be playing one of their games that they filled their time with. They had drawn a circle on the ground with a stick and had collected small, round pebbles. They had one pebble each and there was one in the centre of the circle, apart from this one was large and flat. They were each throwing their stones at the one in the centre of the dirt circle and trying to get their pebbles as close to it as possible…even if it meant hitting others stones out of the way. They were squealing and squabbling with each other, arguing over whether someone was cheating or not. They were having so much fun, and although they were arguing, no one was unhappy.

Elva didn't understand it.

How could they be so happy? Everyone in the whole of Alagasia had some problem or other that caused them unhappiness. Elva knew this…she could feel everyone's pain and unhappy thoughts. Everyone had been touched by Elva. She knew everyone…apart from the children.

It was as if they didn't exist. She registered everyone in her head, everyone who had pain. They were there…they existed. But children, however, were different. It was if they _weren't there_. They didn't exist…they were just a blank spot on Elva's internal map, not existing. They just physically were not there. They could not exist.

Children were an enigma Elva pondered on every day. She just could not understand them…how they could go through a world so full of pain and suffering and not notice it. They were too different to her…complete opposite's. one thing had to be wrong…either her, or them. She knew it was her. Thanks' to Shadeslayer's _blessing_, she was forever doomed to be different from the moment he laid his hand on her head.

A child cheered, waving his small hands in the air. The others smiled at him and jumped up and down, before collecting their stones, already eager to begin their next game.

Elva shook her head. To her, they were wrong. She might not have been right, but neither were they. They were too happy. It wasn't fair. She had been filled with all the pain and suffering every single person in the war endured, and they had not felt a thing. How old were they? Five, six? And while her body was slightly older than theirs-about seven-she had not yet had her second birthday. How cruel fate was.

She watched the children, bemused. She would never understand them, she concluded. She would have to endure them. She knew they feared her anyway…they knew she was different somehow. She didn't care about that, though. She returned the favour. She was terrified of them. She understood everything…_everything_…apart from them.

In her opinion, the children were more terrifying than Galbatorix.

One of the children looked up at her, a girl in a red cotton dress with brown hair. She had bright blue eyes, like the scales of Saphira. She watched Elva for a moment, turning her stone over and over in her hand. Elva returned her gaze, determined not to show her fear.

The girl smiled at Elva, and, whispering something to the child next to her, began to approach her. The child she had whispered to stared at her, then at Elva. He then said something, and all the children turned to Elva. Uncomfortable with the gaze of the half dozen anomalies, Elva jumped off her barrel and began to walk hurriedly away.

The girl in the red dress ran to catch up with Elva, and grabbed her arm to stop her from getting away. Elva jumped, afraid for one of the first times she could remember. And, being so young, she could-sadly-remember every moment of her life.

The girl smiled kindly at Elva. "Why don't you play with us?" she asked, sounding genuinely confused.

Elva looked at her, confused. Why would she play with them? They were so different. Anyway, Elva couldn't play. She didn't understand how to…how can you let all your troubles fall away like that, and let happiness take over? No, Elva couldn't do it. She shrugged at the girl.

The girl pouted, seeming truly upset. "But you look so lonely! Come and play with us, please!" she pulled on Elva's arm towards the other children. Elva pulled away, her fear bordering on terror.

"I…I don't know how." She managed to whisper.

"Oh!" the girl smiled happily, thinking that was all that was wrong. "Well, every game is different you see. This game we are playing now, you have a stone and you need to get it as close to the other stone as you can. The closest wins!" She smiled at Elva. "Come and try it!"

Elva unwillingly followed the girl to the other children; her bare feet kicking up puffs of dust. The children frowned at her at first, not sure what to think of her. She swallowed, and unknowingly grabbed at the girl in the red dress. There were six other children, seven including the girl in the red dress, eight including Elva. The girl in the red dress pointed at every child individually. "That's Tommy…that is Ethel, and her sister Grace. This is Albert…careful of him, he throws the rock quite hard, and it sometimes misses and hits people. He's rubbish at this game." Albert stuck out his little pink tongue at the girl in the red dress, and Elva was amazed at how he took the insult. Most adults would lash out at that comment.

The girl in the red dress continued with her introductions, ignoring Albert's face pulling. "This is Lucas…and this is Cora. And I am Selena!" she stated proudly, finally pointing to herself.

"Err…hello." Elva whispered nervously. "My...my name is Elva."

They all smiled at her. "Hello Elva!" smiled Tommy. "Do you have a pebble?"

Elva shook her head.

He shrugged. "Guess you can borrow my spare then!" he handed her a small, unremarkable stone with red streaks across its grey surface. It was perfectly round. "Thank you." She smiled cautiously.

"Do you know what to do?" Ethel asked.

Elva nodded. "Selena told me." She looked at the ring on the floor. "Get your pebble closest to the big pebble, is that right?"

The children nodded at her excitedly. "Well then, let's go!" Cora threw her stone first, and it landed a few inches from the main stone. She smiled, pleased with her throw. Grace threw next, her stone landing just short of Cora's'.

"Damn!" Grace smiled.

Albert threw next and, true to the information that Selena had passed on, he hit the main stone but the pebble bounced off and went flying towards Tommy. It hit Tommy on the nose and Elva winced, expecting a burst of pain to spread her consciousness. It never arrived. Tommy said, "Ow," but he didn't appear to be affected at all. He thought it was so funny that he didn't even feel it pain. "Albert, you need to improve on your throwing!" Tommy laughed.

Tommy threw next, and his stone landed alongside Cora's. he smiled happily.

Selena threw, her stone landing just in front of Tommy's, knocking his out the way. She laughed and Tommy pulled a face at her.

Ethel threw her rock, sending it sailing across the stone to the other side. It landed on the edge of the circle. "Oh!" she laughed. "I got it in the circle this time!" everyone, including Elva, laughed at that. Elva thought it strange that the children didn't seem disturbed at her strange laugh, or, for that matter, her strange speech.

Lucas threw, his aim perfect. His stone sailed at the rock and hit it at a slow enough speed that it stopped, just touching the rock. The children whooped. "Lucas is a champion!" Selena cheered. "He almost always wins." She informed Elva.

Elva swallowed, turning her rock over and over in her hand. It was just a small, silly little game, but it seemed like the most important thing in the world to her. She cared about nothing else. She drew her hand back, and threw the rock.

It landed just short of the rock, not quite touching it. However, it hit Lucas' rock and knocked it out the way, pushing it just a bit too far from the main rock. Elva's was the closest.

Elva smiled and the children cheered her happily. Selena hugged her, which made her freeze a moment before hugging her back. It was the first time she had been hugged by someone she hadn't known all her life. Her guardian, Greta, was the only one who had ever hugged her. She smiled at the child's willingness to hug her.

Tommy smiled at her. "You can keep that pebble if you want!" and Elva realised how much she wanted to keep it. She went and picked it up, rolling it round in her hand. She returned the smile. "Thank you…I would love to keep it." She gripped it tightly in her hand and could think of nothing more precious to her in the whole world.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flicker of movement. She turned in time to see the tail of a cat flickering around the corner. She smiled. _Solembum_. He had been watching. For some reason, she was proud to know he had seen her.

She looked up at the sky and saw that it was getting rather late. She smiled at Selena and the others, before telling them that she had to go. Their faces fell, but quickly lifted again when she promised to return tomorrow. Selena grabbed her arm and hugged her again. When she released Elva, Elva started to walk away. The children waved after her, calling "Bye!" and "See you tomorrow!" she waved at them, before she started running to her small house she shared with Greta.

Along the way she thought. She still didn't understand children completely, but she understood them a bit more. They weren't so terrifying anymore. They were just different, innocent. She smiled.

She pushed open the small wooden door and ran to Greta, who was sitting knitting by the fire. She sat down by the fire with her in her own wooden chair, and settled down with the book she had selected the night before.

"What have you been doing today, my little plum?" asked Greta, not really expecting a reply. She never usually got one. She never usually wanted to know what Elva did all day, but still felt she had a duty to ask.

Elva placed her still closed fist on her book and opened it slowly, as if she thought the pebble might have disappeared. When she had fully opened her fist, Greta peered at the stone. It appeared to glow and shimmer in the light of the fire, much like Elva imagined a dragon egg would.

"What's that love?" asked Greta, confused.

"A stone." Elva replied.

"Why do you have it?"

"Someone gave it to me." Elva smiled to herself.

Greta nodded slightly, and settled back in her chair to do her knitting again. "So what were you doing today, little plum?" she repeated.

"Playing." Elva stated proudly. "I was playing."

Greta smiled, as proud as Elva.


End file.
